Eun-kwang high’s chess activity group, ‘Stalemate.’

Stalemate’s advisor is Je-gun Yong.

Jun-yeoul Yeom played chess under Je-gun Yong’s influence.

“Mentor! You knew I was participating in a chess tournament hosted by Stalemate.”

Jun-yeoul smiled broadly when he heard my words.

“I wasn’t actually going to participate that seriously. But if you root for me, I’ll aim for the championship!”

It’s going to be more than rooting for, it may be us two sitting face to face with a chessboard in between.

“Yeah, I’ll root for you.”

“Yes! Although it’s a shame that the class intensity level goes down. Instead, if I get a good result in the chess tournament, you’ll acknowledge me, right?”

I nodded at Jun-yeoul, full of motivation, and he smiled even brighter.

When I saw him smiling like that, I wanted to pass on all the skills I knew, but before that, I had to ask him something.

“I have a question.”

“Ask me anything, Mentor!”

“Are you going to the on-board party hosted by Juo Group and TC Group this weekend?”

Soon, the Juo Group and TC Group joint on-board party will be held.

The invitation, which came through the Association, stated that it invited players who were active in the Jamsil Baseball stadium incident on Children’s Day.

‘That includes Jun-yeoul and the Red Lion. They might also call the Dragon clan.’

On-board parties are held on the sea or river.

The head of the Pig clan, Kang-ryup Jeo, was a general who commanded the navy of the heavens.

Bang-yeoul Yueom’s or Jun-yeoul Yeom’s fire-related Gwanglims were not likely to win against Kang-ryup Jeo’s water-based attacks.

‘Still, both the Red Lion and Dragon clan are menacing.’

There were also those who had other attribute skills, such as the space-bending skill of Je-gun Yong.

If only the Yeoms were there, they might do something, but they wouldn’t be able to cause an incident when all of them were on board.

So, the antagonist would’ve tried to prevent them from coming to the party.

“At first I was going to attend, but······ instead we are having a separate dinner with their group on Friday night. It was hard to make the schedule work for all team members, and some people were worried about me staying on water for so long.”

So there were no Jun-yeoul Yeom, no Red Lion or Dragon clan coming to the on-board party.

The Pig clan must’ve decided to carry out their plan after they answered that they would attend a Friday night dinner instead of the party.

“Do you know who suggested that?”

The person who first suggested removing Red Lion and the Dragon clan from the party on board.

It is likely that the person was affected by the antagonist villain.

“I don’t know…… Juo wanted us to come to the party, their baseball team’s mascot being a Dragon and all. I think the one who made the offer was TC.”

So from the TC group.

The most suspicious group of the 4 major ones was TC already.

‘It became even more suspicious.’

In the game, it was after the baseball stadium incident made the heirs of the respective groups step down from the front line.

The TC group remained silent even when Juo group was blamed as the main culprit of assassination and terrorism.

In addition, in the four-group battle scene, it was suspicious that Si-hoo Do, the son of the head of the current TC group, was assassinated.

“Will something happen again? Should I go to the party instead, too?”

“No. Don’t come.”

“Seems like I won’t be much of a help this time.”

Jun-yeoul looked a little downhearted.

Frankly, it was true.

The compatibility of Jun-yeoul Yeom and Kang-ryup Jeo’s powers were the worst.

If the other Dragon clan and the Red Lion came to the party along with Jun-yeoul, the Pig clan was most likely to cancel all their plans.

‘If that happens, the information Red Tiger had acquired after all those injuries will become useless.’

I couldn’t speak the truth, so I sort of beat around the bush.

“If you didn’t come last time, there would’ve been more people who got hurt. I really appreciate that. But take a break this time.”

“…… Okay. But if there’s anything I can do, please call me.”

Jun-yeoul’s frown disappeared at my express of gratitude, but I don’t think he lightened up inside.

I began to worry that my mentee seemed to listen to and trust people too well.

“Don’t follow someone you don’t know at Friday dinner.”

“You say the same thing as my father.”

Jun-yeoul seemed caught off guard for a second.

However, he became overjoyed right away.

“You think of me like my father! You care for me!”

That’s what I was talking about. Him trusting people too much.

I understood the minds of Bang-yeoul Yeom and the Dragon clan overprotecting Jun-yeoul.

* * *

The training session with Jun-yeoul had ended.

After exiting the closed area using the Gwanglim of ‘Colorless’ Mu-young Jeon, “Shadowless Time,” I headed towards my classroom.

‘He didn’t succeed in swallowing even a tiny flame.’

Even today, Jun-yeoul failed in ‘swallowing psychic power’.

‘But it’s much better than last time. There were times when he almost succeeded in taking the initiative.’

I was eager to see my protégé’s growth.

In my head, I organized a training curriculum dedicated to Jun-yeoul and opened the door to first grade, class 0.

“You’re finally here, Ui-shin Cho.”

First-grade class 0.

Jiho Hwang was standing there.

Jiho, who was sitting on his desk, jumped down with a twinkle in his eyes.

“What are you doing here?”

I was slightly surprised, but I pretended composure.

Jiho walked towards me without speaking.

He began to observe my face very closely with his eyes shining.

‘What is he looking at? Ears?’

Jiho Hwang moved his head and checked both my ears.

Why is he looking at my ears?

‘Uh, this is a bad situation.’

When I realized, it was already too late.

“You’re wearing earrings.”

I’m screwed.

“Ui-shin Cho, it’s been a frequent thing for you to ignore my messages lately, but it’s a strange thing to ignore the message of the newspaper club leader. So I tracked your location just in case it was an emergency.”

Fuck him.

I knew he’d track my location.

The power of the Chairman of the Board was being abused today also.

Looking at Jiho’s expression, he seemed to have held a grudge against me always leaving him on read or unread.

He’s small-minded for a being over 5 thousand years old.

“The location of the device given to by the school is in this classroom, exactly in your locker. So the earring-type wearable device you’re wearing now is something you personally purchased.”

The annoying guy knows that I use two devices now.

“So your location and the location of the device didn’t always match. That’s a nice clue.”

He’s not saying he has tracked my location other times than April Fool’s Day, right?

He’s been prying my identity behind my back.

“I sense a faint trace of Dragon power. Ui-shin Cho, what were you doing?”

Jiho sensed the Dragon.

I knew Jun-yeoul, a descendant of the Dragon clan, had Dragon’s trace, but it should be much weaker than the Original clan.

‘Good thing I put the fire carnation in my item log.’

If I had put it in my pocket, it might have been discovered immediately.

I need to be careful every time I come after training.

“Just, nothing.”

“You don’t intend to tell me.”

“What are you doing here.”

“I heard an interesting story from the Chairman’s side. I was trying to talk to you about what happened in the newspaper club today. You ignored my messages, so I came looking for you.”

Don’t tell me he’ll come looking after me every time I ignore his texts!

Seeing my dumb expression, Jiho made a highly satisfied face.

“So what were you to trying to tell me?”

“Today, second years in class 0 just broke in the newspaper club.”

What in the world does this mean.

The reason the head of the newspaper club convened the members must have been to respond to the raid of class 0 of the second grade.

“You know the newspaper club produced a whole special magazine about Je-gul Jegal on Teacher’s Day? On Teacher’s Day, the electronic version was sent to Mr. Jegal, but the printed version was completed today. Second-grade class 0 wanted that magazine and raided us.”

Second-grade class 0 again.

Why did they raid us when they could’ve just asked?

“If they asked the leader senior, they would’ve gotten a copy.”

“They didn’t want the second one, they wanted the first edition. When we refused to give the first edition, they busted in.”

All that for the first edition.

They were hardcore fans of Je-gul Jegal, alright.

‘Maybe if you’re fanboys/fangirls, you can’t help obsessing over the first edition.’

The world of the first edition is grim, where there is only demand and no supply.

There are many books that are sold with a premium cost only because it is the first edition.

This is a limited magazine made for the purpose of presenting to Mr. Jegal and distributing it to the members of the newspaper club.

No wonder the fans of Mr. Jegal are obsessed for the first edition of that rare book.

“I think it’s right to say that we’ve been challenged rather than attacked. They declared that if they lost, they would give the newspaper club accommodation vouchers for the Air Hotel ‘Icarus.’ and if they won, they would take the first edition of Mr. Jegal’s featured magazine.”

It was quite obvious.

If the newspaper club didn’t accept it, they would’ve caused another trouble somehow.

The club leader, a third-year, knew that and had to accept it, no matter what.

“The confrontation was held in the gym inside the General Club building. Each of them chose three representatives and decided to play a psychic tag match. On our side, the leader of our club, the vice-leader, and I were picked. The leader recommended Saeron Moon, but she declined saying that she wanted to record and cover the situation, so the vice-leader went instead.”

Saeron thinks in order to be a military journalist, she has to be strong.

Among the playable characters, Saeron Moon’s combat skills were not bad, so it was not unusual for her to be recommended by the leader, although she was in the first grade.

“I personally had interest in class 0, second grade, so I decided to deal with them seriously. They fought well, but were no match for me.”

Hahaha! I could picture Jiho Hwang laughing wickedly as he took down second-grade class 0 one by one.

Jiho’s following words could be summarized as below:

Jiho went out as the first player and beat the shit out of class 0 of second grade.

When Jiho defeated Chan-sol Wang, the vice-president of the second-grade class 0, the president Chan-sol Geum proposed something.

‘If you give us just one of the first edition magazines, I will offer you a suite in Icarus during the peak season.’

When he heard that, Jiho gave him his share of the first edition and got a ticket to stay in the Icarus’ Suite.

Class 0 is said to be playing Battle Royal against themselves for a magazine that was once owned by Jiho Hwang.

“Even if you have money, if you don’t make a reservation in advance, the Air hotel suite is hard to get in peak season. During summer vacation, the newspaper club camp will be held in Icarus’ Suite. So leave your schedules free.”

“I might not be able to go.”

“Why.”

I have to deal with the events that happen during summer vacation.

At this point, the exact date was unknown, so it was difficult to plan ahead.

It was something seriously related to the future of one of our classmates, so I had to participate.

“By the way, what’s the interesting story that came in from the Chairman’s side?”

Jiho grumbled due to the fact that I avoided answering his question.

“Second-grade class 0 succeeded in dominating an Other-world, not long ago.”

Other-world domination.

A word that means the act of interfering with the Other-world by psychic waves and subjecting the world and its Enemies.

It was the last thing I expected to hear.

“They were going to make an Other-world into a “Garden” and gift it to Je-gul Jegal.”

The Teacher’s day gift that they prepared was a fricking Other-world “Garden.”

* * *

Players Association, Korean Branch.

Office of Regulations Enforcement Department.

This place was close to a bunker rather than an office.

Gyubin Hong, who had recently been dealing with a major issue, was using this place instead of the Public Relation team’s office to maintain security.

“Gyubin, how many hours did you sleep yesterday?”

Ji-hwa Lim, the Other-world support satellite management team leader, also Gyubin’s senior of the Regulations Enforcement Department, asked with a tired-looking face.

Gyubin, who was in a perfect outfit, but had bloodshot eyes, replied.

“I slept two hours.”

“……lucky you. I want to move departments.”

Ji-hwa Lim, who couldn’t sleep a wink, always said “I will move departments” out of habit.

“You’re the initiator of ‘the project.’ You can’t change departments.”

“I know! I know······.”

Ji-hwa Lim stumbled as she stared at dozens of holograms.

“A frozen Other-world that Player SAT-K cannot detect, deleted coordinates…… that gives me a headache already and now, Eun-kwang High……”

The hologram of Ji-hwa showed a list of players from the second grade class 0 of Eun-kwang High registered in the Association.

“A bunch of 18-year-old teenagers, not even Original clan succeed in Other-world domination…… At first, I was surprised because I thought there was an error in the player SAT-K attack record. Hahaha.”

It is the first time in official records that humans have succeeded in dominating an Other-world and created a Garden.

Gyubin added his own words, listening to Ji-hwa’s dry laughter.

“If the Original Clan can use the methods the kids used, it will make it easier to dominate Other-worlds. If that happens, it may increase freeze-type Other-worlds.”

All became silent after Gyubin’s words.

They knew how serious this was, so the Association, with the cooperation of Eun-kwang High, completely erased the record of second-grade class 0 students’ domination of an Other-world.

‘There has to be a way to apply the Other-world domination theory that the students found.’

When Gyubin Hong was immersed in thought,

Ding Dong.

He heard the alarm of a message arriving by a private line.

When he checked it, it was a message from an Original being that frequently bothered him with the excuse of the blessing he had given him.

Gyubin’s expression hardened as he read the message.

‘I am requested to investigate the students of Eun-kwang High, grade 1 class 0.’

One of the students designated by the Original clan had an acquaintance with Gyubin.

‘…… I have to investigate Ui-shin?’

One of the students the Original being asked to investigate was the Anonymous Supernova.